Globalisation, government partisanship, and labour strike intensity

Abstract How does government partisanship affect strike intensity? While there is a strong emergent literature examining the consequences of labour strikes on political attitudes, how politics affects strikes is less well understood. This is despite the fact that strikes historically have been politically salient and have had political goals. In line with previous contributions, this research note shows that labour strikes in the OECD are generally less intense with higher representation of left-wing parties in government. However, this effect is conditional on levels of economic globalisation: as trade penetration increases, left-wing parties in government become less able to address the concerns of organised labour, and the effect of government partisanship on strike intensity attenuates. These findings matter for understanding the traditional alliance between labour movements and left-wing parties in advanced democracies with open economies.